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Fastest (non-domination) victory?

(Apologies if duplicate, found nothing by skimming the existing threads.)

So, what's everyone's fastest time to achieve a non-domination victory? I thought it would be nice to discuss strategies to min-max the time required.

For me, I just got a t200 Contact (t170 activating the Beacon). I didn't really go for a fastest time and I got a bit lazy (god, those trade routes are tedious) towards the end. I also forgot the satellite for Signal needs Firaxite and of course I had none in my borders and none of the AI had any for trade, which delayed me by 10 or so turns.

I went with Elodie, managing the culture to hit 10 policies in order to get the most expensive leaf tech (the one that allows the Signal Satellite to be built). Went for the Equation afterwards in order to give the satellite time to locate the signal.

This was on Standard, Standard, Apollo. 7 cities, rush trade routes, turn 1 route towards the Capital for growth, 2 outwards for Science. Got DoWed towards the end but since the path takes you right to Planetary Carvers, I defended myself without problems.

What's your fastest time so far? Is it just me or could getting lucky with the Signal in Progenitor Ruins lead to some crazy win times? I mean with that, you only need the Equation, which is extremely close even without any free techs.

A bit slow as well did the Emacipation victory on standard apollo. Forgot to upgrade units so where using 48 strenght units into the gate lol and only in the end managed to put two 102 strenght titans in there. This was on quick speed and 171 turns so should be fairly easy to beat (I know I can beat this myself if I do it again.)

Strategy it was just expanding and trading and then when someone got a wonder I wanted same turn i was about to finish it I got pissed off and conquered the city who built it and all others on that island lol. So yeah I was goofing off. I was also trying to maximize score so I was doing stuff to boost health and as many affinities as possible and as many cheap techs as possible as well and all cities on growth with terraces everywhere.

The special map slowed down the early game quite a bit. There were literally a half dozen nests near my borders, so I spent a good part of the early- to mid-game dealing with them. Only then could I start b-lining the VC.

t204 CV on standard/standard with Polystralia on Apollo. Wasn't even trying until I realized when I discovered the 2nd progenitor ruin on t136 and went for it from there. I had to burn 9 turns on building a firaxite mine that was in my territory but totally forgot to work it and nobody to trade to get it.

This VC is pretty broken if you get lucky enough to find the ruins. Took 10 turns to build the Decode Signal, 20 turns to build the Beacon and 30 turns to wait. It did seem to draw the ire of other civs as I ended up in a war with 3 factions soon after building the decode signal. But given how bad the AI is at war in this game and how you can have a ton of units without much penalty it was easy to defend. The war cut back on my science output a lot but you need 0 science to win if you find the two ruins.

I just finished my first standard/standard (played epic before, wanted to compare) apollo emancipation gate victory on turn 238. I could have shaved off plenty of turns as I forgot I need the lasercom satellite (went straight for the gate and affinity) and I couldn't be asked to micromanage the science stealing all the time. I also tried prosperity for the first time and it didn't really seem to suit me.

The game wasn't purely peaceful as I dow'd on Kozlov, who was my neighbour and first in score, when he went to war on an another neighbour. Call it a pre-emptive strike. After settling around I went straight to CNDRs and having them seemed to make things really peaceful even if we had armies on the border and guarded relations. 10 cities of my own, 10 conquered.

I usually finish my Soyuz games around turn ~220-250 without going domination or contact. I guess if I'd play efficiently (e.g. use spies instead of just keeping them at HQ) one can finish a game around turn 200 or so.

Just got a t246 victory on Apollo with The Promised Land (Purity) victory. Built the portal on turn t206 but I had no idea how to actually achieve the victory, took me a few turns to figure out. Then my 2 nearest neighbors decided to DOW me (maybe because I was about to win?) and my win took a lot longer than anticipated.
Well, this victory is annoying to begin with. I like the idea, but manually juggling 20 settlers turn after turn to an unsettled plot (which is hard to find because ICS is the best strategy), and then forcing them to have only 1 movement speed and 6 maximum per settled city... Like I said, the idea is there, I'd prefer it to be less... tedious. Managing 3 trade routes per city is already tedious enough...
Gah, so much potential, just like Civ V launch.

Turn 181 contact victory (Soyuz level and standard speed). My first win, actually, which was also my first game after giving up on Apollo level.

I played ARC (although that didn't matter much, really) and Artists. Was lucky to be on my own small continent. Got both parts of the Signal from expeditions. Got 6 or 7 cities going. Covered a lot of the Industry and Knowledge trees. Industry was the most important - you get a bonus to wonders and a big bonus to trade routes. Also, I only had coastal cities since I was on that tiny continent.

Was also at +30 health at the end of the game (thanks to the +0.2 health per building virtue), FWIW, and getting techs and virtues every 4 turns or so. In retrospect, I didn't need that much science or culture or even production outside of the capital, so I maybe should have spammed manufactories around the capital once everything was running.

It could've been faster. Unfortunately, I picked Franco-Iberia, not expecting a Progenitor Ruin to be right next to me. Nothing that I really researched after the Equation would really benefit me at all. Slavic Federation could do it pretty fast if they get lucky and find a Solar Collector, which would save time on research.

First game I actually forced myself to finish was turn 210 Promised Land. I'm sure this can be done a good deal faster because I mostly focused on improving my early game so far and I simultaneously went after domination to see how that compares.

Mine was an Apollo t226 Promised land victory on Protean, Standard. I really found that if you don't with by T230 on that difficulty, you are very much conceding the victory to the AI. It might happen, or it might not, but if an AI is actively seeking a victory, they will be done by T230, maybe even sooner. I played about 4 Apollo games by now, and best the AI did was T234, which I find quite good - it is a breath of fresh air in comparison to Civ5/Deity, where you could OCC your way to victory if you play ok and time a rationalism jump & GE Hubble build properly.

The real key to this victory is to have 4 available city spots for the earthlings (on the 4th tile from any city in the vicinity), and magrails leading to all of these spots. THis gives you a sure-fire 20 turn victory after building the gate.

Turn 204 Transcendence Victory. No war was waged. Harmony is pretty pointless. The requirements are nearly the same as for the other two affinity victories (mostly level 13 in your affinity), but it also asks you to go further down the tech web and you have to wait 10 turns longer to boot. Ok, you don't have to shuffle colonists around, but an equivalent Promised Land victory would have been 9-10 turns faster. Xeno Cav and immunity to Miasma are nice, but otherwise the other affinities just look better.

Apollo, Pangaea, Standard size and speed, all standard settings.

I'm now really impressed that people can go as low as turn 190 with this. Perhaps I should work more on my late-game.

Edit: Ok, now I see. Just in case somebody else is confused by this: Mind Stems and Xeno Sanctuaries only work if you have them before you finish the mind flower. Had I known this, I could probably have knocked 20 turns or so off my victory time, so T190 seems quite in reach now.

Does anyone know if you can get both pieces of the Signal from the Progenitor Ruins? And I'm also assuming the time you get the Affinity upgrade is where you get part of the signal all the time.

I'm asking because I just found two of them right next to me in my game and excavating them doesn't say you received part of the signal (it may only show it when you finish the the Transcendental Equation, but I'm not sure)

In any case I can probably get a faster win time than before. I picked the Slavs this time around so science is basically moot, and all that matters is getting 1000 energy and capital production.

Does anyone know if you can get both pieces of the Signal from the Progenitor Ruins? And I'm also assuming the time you get the Affinity upgrade is where you get part of the signal all the time.

I'm asking because I just found two of them right next to me in my game and excavating them doesn't say you received part of the signal (it may only show it when you finish the the Transcendental Equation, but I'm not sure)

In any case I can probably get a faster win time than before. I picked the Slavs this time around so science is basically moot, and all that matters is getting 1000 energy and capital production.

Click to expand...

Yes, I got both parts of the signal from expeditions in my game. The next step just came up in the victory screen. I didn't have to research anything before it indicated that.